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44
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ISSUE 2 2015
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THE CHANNEL
he Consumer
Electronics Assoc-
iation just upped its
forecast of Ultra
HD TV sales to
surpass 4.4m in
2015, a whopping
210% increase over last year.
Research firm Strategy Analytics
sees a far speedier penetration rate
than first anticipated, predicting
that nearly half of US homes will
own an Ultra HD TV by 2020, an
unprecedented rise considering just
1% had a 4K set in 2014.
2015 has become the year of
Ultra HD growth. Ultra HD TVs are
big sellers. Programmers and content
producers are creating increasingly
more of the Ultra HD television
episodes and feature films that
consumers are craving. And
satellite is a pivotal element in the
technology mix that has linear Ultra
HD home delivery fast approaching.
SES is keenly focused on
utilising its growing global satellite
fleet and unsurpassed video
distribution expertise to accelerate
Ultra HD delivery to homes around
the world. Building on its existing
carriage of 6963 channels globally,
of which 2100 are HD, SES has
recently inked five deals to deliver
Ultra HD channels across Europe,
including Sky Deutschland and
German shopping channel Pearl.tv.
HISTORIC TRIALS
SES has also launched its own Ultra
HD demonstration channels
serving Europe and North America,
enabling broadcasters and cable
operators respectively to prepare
and test their networks for Ultra
HD. Cable MSO (Multiple System
Operator) Armstrong is in the early
stages of the first-ever linear live
Ultra HD trial in a cable system,
tapping SES’ camera-to-screen Ultra
HD platform at its headquarters
cable lab in Butler, Pennsylvania.
SES’ Ultra HD offering, first
unveiled at the NAB and INTX
conferences earlier this year,
combines broadcast and IP
technologies in a fully-managed,
scalable service. The breakthrough
leverages satellite’s inherent
broadcast advantages and the
multicasting capabilities of DOCSIS
3.0, the advanced transmission
standard already in use by
Armstrong and other leading cable
systems across the US. That makes
for a far faster rollout across cable
networks when there’s little to no
cost required for Ultra HD
upgrades. It’s certainly faster than
the redeployment of cable boxes to
millions of subscribers and better
than OTT offerings that are
susceptible to buffering and
congestion, according to Steve
Corda, VP of business development
in North America for SES.
Corda has spearheaded SES’
development of the plug-and-play
ecosystem that has 4K on the verge
of linear delivery to US homes four
times faster than it took HD. “We
are about nine months into the
development of our turn-key Ultra
HD solution,” says Corda. “And
we’re on target to deliver linear
Ultra HD to cable homes in a
quarter of the time it took linear
HD to reach subscribers,” he notes,
referring to the early days of HD
when the only HD content in the
home was on Blu-ray. It took four
years for linear live HD to make it
to living rooms. Ultra HD is
expected to arrive in subscriber
homes this autumn, delivered over
the SES platform.
“There’s always been this
chicken-and-egg scenario with
Ultra HD. When will there be
enough Ultra HD TV sets in the
home? When will there be enough
content?” says Corda. “Well, SES
has cracked the egg with an Ultra
HD ecosystem that takes virtually
no time or investment for cable
operators to implement across their
cable plant. This is the first step in
making linear-live Ultra HD into
cable TV households a reality. We
have a historic Ultra HD trial
underway with an extremely
innovative tier-2 cable operator.
t
Algiers rooftop
Nearly
half of US
homes will
own an
Ultra HD
TV by 2020
“
”
ULTRA
EXPERIENCE
Ultra HD is far ahead of schedule and 2015 has
become the year of Ultra HD growth. Paul Sims
has covered the satellite and telecom industries
for more than 15 years – here he looks at how
SES is accelerating Linear Live Ultra HD delivery
to the home
T
t
SES filming the
world's largest
gathering of hot-
air balloons,
Lorraine Mondial
Air Ballons, in
Ultra HD
SES Ultra HD
demo at NAB
Paul Sims
THE
